A company with a strong sense of design, the ability to craft purposeful hardware and software and a penchant for cutting through the crap to deliver something you actually want to use (mostly) — who wouldn’t want to see what it could do with the junkfest that is modern TV?

So far, all we’ve gotten is noodling. A self-professed hobby in the size of a small hockey puck that has glacially increased in usefulness and utility.

A new Apple TV is on the way, though, and it could move the needle in more than one industry. According to information I’ve been able to compile from multiple sources, Apple is about to lay down its cards.

Something that Panzarino alludes to — and has been hinted atpreviously — is the kind of hub the Apple TV could provide for all kinds of HomeKit- and iCloud-powered connectivity, much in the same way that Google’s OnHub surely strives to be.

Think about it: your existing TV setup is likely in some way connected to the internet, either because your ISP and cable provider are the same, or because you’re a cord-cutter. That means it’s possible to have a box that’s effectively hard-wired to the web at all times. Maybe there will be an AirPort built into the next Apple TV – it would make sense.

That gives you one centralized hub that’s always connected to iCloud, iTunes, all your HomeKit devices, and so forth. Add Siri to that mix, and you have your very own JARVIS. You could ask to see a presentation. Or you could say something like “hey Siri, get ready for dinner” and an appropriate Apple Music playlist would play while the lights dim.

This is likely farther-future thinking, but the possibility is there. Once a hub like this is in your home, it will be the nervous system of the smart home.